Saturday, January 29, 2011

Link to YouTube Movie "STANDARD DEVIATION MAN"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLTSenQotqw

48 comments:

  1. So it look like i'm the first to comment on "SDM!". Which i'm not sure is a good think, but hey its 10 pts and i'm sure I won't be the only one.

    Not sure it is as good as the descriptions given in class already and the "oscar-caliber" acting remids me of Bill and Ted. Also, not sure what the "R" stands for ... maybe remedial. Why can't making a video be Option 4 on the final?

    Anyway the one good thing is noting the links to the right on other "teaching" videos. These might actually come in handy later on in the course.

    Jeremy S Pittman

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  2. Well you could definitely tell this was a High School video project! Great information but I think I gained more from Professor Shelley's lectures. Plus standard deviation is a topic we've been reviewing and reviewing for years. However, YouTube will definitely come in handy when we get into more complicated topics. Now if only I could find a really good video on how to use SAS! :)

    And Jeremy I agree with you on the R! I was distracted the whole video trying to figure out what the heck the R was suppose to stand for.

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  3. Nice 10-second explanation of standard deviation. Wish the video had been "What Is The Probability That..." or "What Can You Say About That Claim" Man, to help with Lab 2!

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  4. Good explanation of standard deviation, Funny what you can find on youtube these days, I can't imagine that they envisioned an ISU statistics class watching their high school project video when they made it! I'm hoping for a video of Z score man or more about how to use a normal curve specifically how to use it to find specific parts of the sample population as in the last two problems of lab 1. I think I got it but I'm not 100% on that!

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  5. Well, what should I comment? I really appreciate the effort of these students to make the SD easier to understand. It is kind of a play. I especially like the historical summary as it is often forgotten in class. In order to a better understanding of the concept, I should have recommended the students to introduce an example of the real life more in detail. By the way, I missed the degree of freedom concept, but perhaps it was a question of lack of understanding.

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  6. This is a great explanation of standard deviation. I like hope it showed how quick and easy it really is to find the standard deviation. Sometimes we get our heads wrapped around how many steps there are. By following the simple video anyone can find the standard deviation of a set of numbers. The normal curve is the easiest curve to find the standard deviation.

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  7. Well, I guess the more we review, the better. Nonetheless, I never check youtube for studying, so probably thanks to this video I will be looking for helpful videos in the future. I'm sure they'll become handy with more complicated concepts.
    I love the idea of extra points for this type of assingments.
    Maria Victoria Sanz Fernandez

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  8. Well this video seems pretty ancient, I guess it is a good thing that math concepts hardly ever change. The standard deviation is one of those concepts that I don't find difficult however it gets complicated with a lot of numbers so it was nice to see these kids put it down on paper instead of just explaining it. I am sure they got a good grade in their class, and probably an A on their exams as well!

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  9. It’s an interesting video. These students try to make standard deviation easier to be accepted. However, this is just a start. There are still a lot to be learned. We are only in week3-4 but the to-be-learned concepts are piled up already. The lab section is helpful so that we know how to apply Tuesday’s theory to Thursday’s assignments.

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  10. I think Dr. Shelley and Trang did a much better job on explaining it (even with the R on the sweatshirt). I do think the other sidebar videos will come in handy for future assignments. It's good to have multiple modes for learing.

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  11. Basically, I agree with the other students. Though this video was only about 8 minutes long, I thought our class demonstration was much easier to understand (this could be a combination of the bad on-and-off accent of standard deviation man coupled with terrible acting). They did provide a very brief history of the concept and some common examples where the standard deviation is used which provided a good background for the concept. There were a list of other SD videos and I wonder if those would teach the actual concept more effectively.

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  12. For an actual explanation of how to calculate SD, the 17 second section from 5:47-6:04 was the most useful. We learned it in class yes, but that was the best thing in the video. To calculate the SD - take the mean of the set of data, subtract the mean from each value in the set to obtain the deviation from the mean of each data value. Square each deviation, find the average of the squares of deviation, (which gives you the variance). Finally take the square root of the variance/average of squares of deviation and you have the Standard Deviation.
    If nothing else, this will be an easy reference for anyone with questions on how to find Standard Deviation.

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  13. Well I would have to say that I was not expecting this for Standard Deviation Man. The quality was poor, but the information was ‘right on.’ I spent several hours picking and choosing different YouTube videos to watch to help me understand these topics a little better, but I hadn’t come across this one before. I found the information good, but the quality of the sound made it hard for me to understand what everyone (other than the Standard Deviation Man) was saying when they were in a group. When they finally just let the STM explain the concept on the board, it seemed to be just what I was expecting. Thanks for the heads up on the video, Trang!

    Shawn Bayouth

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  14. I appreciate the video for what it was. I would agree with most posts on the link that I honestly didn't get a great deal out of the content as I think the speed with which the "actors" ran through the material wouldn't help someone who is struggling really understand how to compute standard deviations. Also, the quality of the picture made it difficult to see the problem that SDM used as an example. As others have mentioned the you tube page should be bookmarked for additioanl resources that at first glance could really help me down the road. Again, I appreciate the creativity from the Standard Deviation Man Group but am not sure how much it would help somebody in a jam.

    Kevin Condon

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  15. I loved this video as an effort by fellow students to teach each other. I liked the initial historical perspective they gave, and loved the standard deviation chart. I really wonder the purpose of the 'R' shirt, if it was really for the language. Anyways, I think Dr.Shelley did a much better job of teaching these concepts lol.

    Harsh Goel

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  16. The viedo was interesting, but difficult to hear in sections. I liked that they included different areas where standard deviation can be applied. Practical application makes abstract concepts much easier to understand.

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  17. I feel like I'm just posting what's come before. Not a bad video, especially for beginners to stats. I was already pretty good with standard deviation, however. I am currently struggling with the confidence intervals, which I felt like I had down Friday when I first viewed the lab, so I'm about to start on it again. On the positive (?) side, tomorrow looks like a snow day, so I may have extra time.

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  18. It is pretty cool that I can use you tube to help understand concepts. It is definitely a cute video and thanks for sharing! I will keep that in my mind if I have trouble understanding a concept. Maybe they have you tube videos on how to write SAS code. ;)

    Erin Hugen

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  19. Well, I guess every review of the Statistics concepts we're required to know is a good thing. What the video lacked in production quality was made up for by enthusiasm of the crew. I also think I can guess Standard Deviation Man's secret identity. I've never posted anything to you tube, but maybe someone should post Trang's SD explanation!!

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  20. Good explanation of SD. Pretty creative way of explaining what going on with the process of finding a SD.

    Does anybody else think that Standard Deviation Man looks like a younger, beardless version of the unabomber?

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  21. It was an interesting introduction to Standard Deviation (SD). Especially I liked the historical review of the SD. There is no doubt of the importance of understanding fundamental concepts in statistics, however I am taking STAT 401 to better interpret the statistical reports or findings in the academic journals or books. I hope I can have more opportunities to apply basic concepts and statistical formula to interpret statistical reports in academic journals.

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  22. These guys are funny, but messy and they slam the door too hard! Yes, I am a mom, how did you guess? I was fortunate enough to learn the SD very well in Stats 401 and Methods 301, and Measurements 440, it was the Z-score that took some time. Because it has two tails on the normal curve when you look up 1.96 you find 97.5% which didn't make sense to me for a 95% Confidence Interval, then I realized the 5% had to be divided by two for the two tails. This makes it easy to look up a Z-score. if you need a 50% Confidence Interval you subract .50 from 1 and divide by two and take the inverse of that (1-.25=.75) for the percentage to look up in the Z-table, in this case it would be .750 and find the Z-score is .68. (for 95% it would be 1.96) they always give you 90, 95, and 97%? But it took me forever to be able to find any percentage. I hope this helps the Z-man request. from a mom.

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  23. Wow!! This is the first time to visit the blog created by Trang. It looks very useful for our study. In my opinion, the video clip is funny and contains very important information regarding SD. Now I fully figure out what the concept of SD and how to interpret it. Further, the historical approach to explain the concept of SD is very interesting to me. Thanks!!

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  24. The video clip really brings me back to high school and all the projects we had to do like that! A fun way to present information in a little different format. The information was concise and to the point; a good way to review what we have already learned in this class. Wish they had more to follow up other things we will be learning!

    Martha Pope

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  25. I appreciated the chart with what percentage each individual deviation represents. I agree though that all of this was covered in class. What I'd like to see are more example problems, but that's how I learn, by doing.

    (1)Subtract each value from the mean (=deviation)
    (2)Square each deviation and add to find the mean of the deviations (=variance)
    (3)Take the square root of the variance (=...standard deviation!)

    That was fun. I wonder how many Ozzy songs it will take to get through Lab 2?

    J. Vazquez

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  26. I find the video useful to review what we learned in class. Although I am a little confused by the "R", too. All in my mind is the R square in regression result chart. Anyway, I think it's interesting and a nice way to teach and let students explain abstract concept themselves.

    Mengyang Pan on lunar new year day

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  27. I also was curious about the "R." However, it was all-in-all a decent video. It explained how to find standard deviation pretty well. It was sort of cheesy, but it still served its purpose of showing how to find standard deviation. Before watching this video it never occurred to me to look on Youtube for school-related help like this.

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  28. Maybe the R is for random...what a super cheesy video! I can totally picture my classmates and I doing a movie like this in high school! I second the post that says we should get to do a video for option #4 on the final. I liked that it applied Standard Deviation to things non-statisticians can understand, like test scores.

    Your blog looks like a great resource, Trang. I will definitely follow this throughout the semester. Thank you for offering the extra credit opportunity!

    Amy Tucker

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  29. I thought the "Standard Deviation Man" video was helpful with standard deviation. It was short, but simple. Statistics makes more sense when it is applied to real-life possibilities, eg. agriculture, test scores.

    Thanks for the additional information.

    Barb Masters

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  30. This video was a helpful review of what we have already learned. Like others, I was a bit distracted by the R! The simplicity of the review made it easy to follow and understand. I couldn't see the numbers that "Standard Deviation Man" was using to explain, so I just went along with it.

    This video reminds me of a video I did for a social studies class! Bad acting and old video recorders make for great fun!

    Very funny, thanks for sharing!

    Hallie Warneke

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  31. All I can say is--hope these guys at least got an A for effort!
    The videos explanation was ok, but because I was learning from a visual I would have enjoyed more visuals about how to figure standard deviation. The paper they showed numbers on that you could not see anyways did not really clue you into how to use it.
    I agree with another post that the 4th project possibility should be an instructional video. As an instructor I could rock that assignment!

    Jennifer Smith

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  32. Well, I guess I'll never get that 8 minutes back. Actually, I could seen my sisters or friends and I making a video like that 10-15 years ago, although I don't think I would want to post it on youtube.

    I thought the explanation of standard deviation might be helpful to someone who was having trouble with it or was new to it, but the video only covered one very basic concept for how long it was. Since it was difficult to see the calculations and they read through the script so quickly, though, I would think one could probably find a better alternative for learning how to calculate standard deviation. However, if you wanted a few laughs with your math lesson, this might be just the video for you.

    And...what was the "R" for?

    Renae Rich

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  33. Though this video was,I think, mainly aimed at high school audience, it would be great if you sent us links to youtube videos for the more advanced topics.
    I didnot know Gauss came up with standard deviation.
    Enhanced my general knowledge.

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  34. Susan~Comment:

    The "SDM" reminds me of something my oldest son and his friends would do. I agree with you, Kthacker, that Professor Shelley's lectures are more valuable, Though looking at it as a teacher's perspective, it was well put together for a high school project. Teaching one's peers is a logical way to enhance learning.


    Susan's comment

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  35. I enjoyed the video as well. It think being able to use other resources to help get the point across for a particular topic is great. Like one of the other posters, I continue to like to see more examples in class as well. I learn best by doing and that is what is really helping me. Another poster pointed out the links to other videos that are on the side, and I never would have thought there would be so much information for statistics on YouTube. Before this assignment I never would have thought to go there for extra help. Thanks Trang.

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  36. It's very useful and interest teaching vedio. This standard deviation superman would be very helpful for students who does not know how to caculate it very well.
    This vedio would be better if they give some gaphy or partical example of how SD is useful in our normal lives.

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  37. That was an interesting video, what a high school assignment! It was actually pretty helpful and I think it would be helpful when learning SD for the very first time to make such a video. I like how they think scientists aren't regular people?? It is good to know, however, that there are other related videos on YouTube for stat that we can refer to for this course.

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  38. This is a contribution for them to make such a voluntary video.

    The chart related to the different proportion under the normal curve deepens my understanding about SD, which we didn't describe in this way in our class.

    Thank Trang! And Happy Rabbit Year, best wishes in the new year, Trang!

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  39. The video was really cheesy but I have to admit it was helpful.

    When I first read what a SD was I could not comprehend all of it. The definition seemed to scientific. The movie does a great job, it is straight to the point and simple terms are used to describe it.

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  40. This video was awesome! I have to admit, standard deviation was something that was not taught in high school simply because it was easier to teach students how to do it excel than teach the equation and take the time to work it out. The students in the video did an excellent job of explaining how standard deviation is calculated. I also appreciated the history behind who came up with the formula and why it was developed. Granted, YouTube is not my first choice as a study tool, but it never a bad idea to review and brush up on topics, and this is a good reminder that we are not limited to our books as a study aid.

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  41. Great video, I can't believe how concepts that seem so inaccessible in the text can be so relatively easy to understand when somebody takes the time to put them on youtube in an engaging way. I hope standard deviation man has a cousin named confidence interval man. It is also nice to see concepts like standard deviation put into context with a little history. I think I may hit up youtube for assignments in the future. If anybody knows of any other videos like this they would be much appreciated

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  42. This movie is awesome! Great movie! It was radical and actually helpful. When I first started learning about Standard Deviation in high school and in Stat 101 it was hard. Over time I learned it but this movie was a good refresher. I am going to bookmark this and use it when I need to teach someone about SD in the future. Plus I know some stat folks that would find this interesting that I will be sharing it with. I will use youtube and google to solve future problems with homework.

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  43. I enjoyed the video, although it was 'cheesy'. They did a great job of explain Standard Deviation and it's practical applications. Was a good review to what I've already learned. Would definitley watch more videos posted!

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  44. (Mina)- I really enjoyed the video and thought those guys did a really good job explaining standard deviation. It was definitely helpful and I will be interested in watching more like it to help with other concepts in Stats. Thanks again for sharing this.

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  45. Cheesy, but then again it's only 12 years old. I believe most people grasp the concepts of statistics well, like standard deviation, but knowing when to use which formula and memorizing syntax is another story completely.

    I'm just happy then didn't call him STD Man for short!

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  46. Nice way of explaining things, well in this case SD. I always love to see such effort made by people to make others understand other subjects clearly and precisely by making clips and creative video. For a person who left mathematics or statistic for a very long time, this kind of clips is an awesome refresher. Thank you.

    syamsul

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  47. I thought this was a pretty quick explanation of standard deviation. I agree it's cheesey, but what do you want from some high school kids doing a video on math concepts? I thought they explained the concept well and liked that they also linked its usage to different fields of study, not just astronomy or statistical analysis.
    Still can't figure out what the R was all about - maybe he couldn't afford an S or didn't want to be confused with another message by wearing "STD" logo. I also like that there are a number of other short videos on the statistical concepts we'll cover. I think these are a great tool to help give us a different approach to understanding the lectures and labs - though I think Dr Shelley and Trang are doing a pretty good job explaining the concepts.

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  48. Learning becomes interesting and easy to understand with the helps of creative and fun modes of learning. I really appreciate this video because it helps me to better understand standard deviation concept in a simple language yet well explained.

    Zarena

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